Data Analysis Versus Data Localisation

WITH THE burgeoning penetration of the Internet – some estimate e-commerce to soon go past $38 billion. Data is the new currency of wealth and power. Its consumption will also account for more than 50 per cent of telco revenues.

- Raghav Chandra

Against this backdrop, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular of 6 April, 2018, mandating that all payment system providers store their entire data relating to payment systems operated by them only in India, has stoked a substantial debate. The official argument in favour of such a fiat was that Indians could not be allowed to be blackmailed by foreign companies with control over their transactional data. Data relating to the foreign leg of the transactions, however, is allowed to be stored abroad as well.

Subsequently, there have been advocates of data localisation who have gone as far as to exhort a digital Dandi – maintaining that data localisation was central to ensuring the sanctity of the Indian Constitution and safeguarding our critical assets. Even the doyen of Indian business, Mukesh Ambani, has equated data with oil and urged the government to help end data colonisation.